Spotify Removes Russian Artists Who Openly Support the Invasion of Ukraine

The music streaming service Spotify has deleted pages and songs of several Russian artists who supported Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Among them are Shaman (Yaroslav Dronov), Chicherina, Polina Gagarina, Grigory Leps, Oleg Gazmanov, and the band “Lyube”.

The EU imposed sanctions against Gagarina and Shaman earlier this week. Restrictions against Leps were introduced by the European Union in December 2022. Chicherina, Gazmanov, and Lyube’s leader Nikolay Rastorguev came under EU sanctions in October 2022.

In October 2023, pages of several Russian singers were hacked on Spotify. Profiles of some musicians featured an image of the Lviv artist Clonnex with the caption “Stop war in Ukraine”.

Spotify is the world’s largest streaming service, allowing users to listen to music, podcasts, and audiobooks. As of April 2024, it has over 600 million subscribers.

The service was officially launched in Russia in July 2020. In April 2022, due to the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, Spotify ceased operations in Russia, and later the company dissolved its Russian legal entity.